I'm taking part in the Big Step Challenge and raising money for Flint House Police Rehabilitation Centre - the charity that offers world class physical rehabilitation and mental health support to serving and retired police officers. I'm sure you will remember I spent 2 weeks there last summer to receive physio for my disc bulge/prolapse and the care I received was amazing. They also do great work for officers with mental health issues such as PTSD. They are a charity and are not linked to the government and so i'm honours to help raise funds for them to continue their work.

The challenge involves doing 10,000 steps every day for July - so 310,000 in total. 10k a day isn't that hard I hear you say - and on an individual day you'd be right. We all have the days where we do something active and are out & about so make or exceed 10k steps. However this challenge is about consistency. Its doing 10k steps every single day - come rain or shine for all 31 days of July.

I've been tracking my average steps in June and days when I work at home don't even make 2,000. Even on days I'm in the office if I drive to the train station and are sat at my desk all day I'm still only doing about 4,000 steps. Therefore this challenge, whilst not as intense as climbing a mountain, running a marathon or swimming the channel will still push me to get out and do specific activities to hit my goal. And remember, that's not a one off, that's every single day in July. Days i'm at work, days in at home, and even days I'm on holiday - i'll be building specific walks into my days wherever i am and whatever i'm doing.

In fact instead of the 310,000 steps this challenge entails, I'm going to add my own challenge to that and round it up to 400,000 steps across July. I'll be helping a great charity but also helping myself get fitter too, so please consider sponsoring me!

I know we are in a cost of living crisis and money is tight, but if you could sponsor even a small amount id be very grateful.